The list of pubs closing their doors due to slumping trade may seem endless – but one Lincolnshire brewery is enjoying record sales.

Batemans brewery says it saw a boom year in 2009, with a five per cent sales increase and they are hoping for more growth in 2010.

The family-run brewery sold 40,000 barrels, which are 36 gallons each, last year.

That works out as 11.5 million pints of ale sold around the country.

Managing director Stuart Bateman told the Echo where he thought the key to success lay.

"The easiest thing you can do during a recession is cut your training and marketing budgets but they are exactly what you shouldn't cut," he said.

"We have increased our training levels and it has really paid off, we make sure all our managers get a lot of support.

"We've got better quality licensees than we've ever had before and that certainly helps."

Licensee of Lincoln's Dog and Bone Eve Quinn put Batemans' continued success down to its traditional values.

"There is nothing corporate or faceless about them, they always make the effort to help us out.

"They also let the managers have a lot of freedom in the pub and the fact we can add personal touches and make it into out own business means we can run a far better pub."